When was the last time you took a day off from work to focus on your own healing and restoration? In our movement to end domestic and sexual violence, particularly during a socio-political climate where tensions are constant, often times our response to those tensions is to act. There is a sense where ‘taking a break’ or ‘taking time off’ might feel impossible and that there is so much responsibility that is carried.

There is a principle called ahimsa which is one of the yamas of the eight limbs of yoga. It is a practice of nonviolence toward self and towards others. This yoga teaching emphasizes that in order to prevent and address violence in our world, you must address that within yourself. It is easy to participate in harmful internal dialogue that you have to keep pushing forward in this work even if it is at the expense of your health.

Last year the Oregon legislature approved a new type of protection order, ERPO, Extreme Risk Protection Order. According to a memo from Everytown, “Extreme risk protection orders -- also called gun violence restraining orders -- enable courts to temporarily prohibit a person from having guns if law enforcement or immediate family members show that he poses a significant danger to himself or others. ERPO laws have been shown to reduce suicide rates by providing an opportunity to intervene and prevent a person from accessing firearms during a time of crisis, before dangerous warning signs escalate into firearm suicide.”

Within the last 15 years, the Resource Sharing Project, the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, sibling coalitions, and others have developed valuable resources for the SA/DV field focused on how we can ensure SA services are internally and externally strong within dual/multi-service organizations. These resources provide guidance on prevention, intervention, and systems change programming specific to SA services.

Within this first piece of the series, the goal is to provide an overview of several strong resources currently available regarding enhancing SA services in dual/multi-service organizations. Whether your program is in its initial phase of developing SA services or if you have been providing strong services for years, this article will provide information that can support your SA work.

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